Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has condemned “shocking” treatment of detainees at the Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre amid claims dozens of women are on hunger strike in protest at the conditions.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has condemned “shocking” treatment of detainees at the Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre amid claims dozens of women are on hunger strike in protest at the conditions.

After making her first visit to the controversial facility, Ms Abbott said she and Shami Chakrabarti were told by detainees that around 65 women were refusing food but management had denied it was a hunger strike.

“Because they are refusing to admit they are on hunger strike, they are not monitoring them in the way that they should,” she told the Press Association.

Just arrived at Bedford Station with Shadow Attorney Gerneral Shami Chakrabarti. After nearly a year and a half of requestsI've final been granted access to #YarlsWood detention centre pic.twitter.com/RFzg3w2hyF

She said she had been seeking access to the site for more than a year and what she found when she got there had been “pretty shocking”.

“There are concerns about standards of medical care, there are concerns about access to legal help. There are concerns about the length of detention. Even convicted prisoners have a release date,” she said.

“It cannot be right that people for whom the Government has a duty of care and who have committed no crime are being treated like prisoners and have so many issues in relation to their health and welfare.

“A lot of them had issues with depression and some of them didn’t seem to be getting help for that. It was all very concerning.”

You don’t leave people in limbo. It is wrong in Guantanamo Bay. You don’t leave people in indefinite detention
Baroness Chakrabarti, shadow attorney general

Shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti, who accompanied Ms Abbott on her visit, said a Labour government would end the practice of indefinite detention for people adjudged to have no right to remain in the country while they awaited deportation.

“This policy is rotten. You don’t leave people in limbo. It is wrong in Guantanamo Bay. You don’t leave people in indefinite detention,” she said.

She expressed concern about the attitude of some of the staff they met including a doctor working at the facility.

“He was incredibly defensive and aggressive and he told me that we had an agenda and we shouldn’t be listening to these women,” she said.

Lady Chakrabarti said the management also tried to make light of the claims that the women were refusing food and claiming that sales in the centre shop had risen “exponentially”.

“They said they (the detainees) are not going to the canteen sales in the shop had gone through the roof,” she said.

There are a number of women who did not take food in the restaurant over the last 48 hours but that does not constitute a hunger strike
Serco spokesman